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Well, I've had a stressful couple of weeks, so Thursday I cancelled
my committment for
Saturday, and decided that even though money is tight, I could afford
the Saturday
racing.
Friday night, couldn't get to bed until 12:30am...Got up before the
alarm at 6:30,
showered, packed the cooler....remembered the ice!!! (didn't
need it, supposed to be
mostly cloudy and not over 85... packed it anyway). Also
remembered a windbreaker
in case it rained (40% chance of showers or Tstorms last I checked)
on the road by
7:30... !@#$, not enough gas... have to stop, best
to do so before leaving town.
Picked up some fruit juice to drink, transferred to plastic bottles
to get it into the track.
I-94 to US-12 to M-50...Some nice sun on the drive in to Brooklyn.
Never been to
Michigan on a Saturday before. I think I'll only go on Saturday's
unless I camp onsite
for the weekend (I hate the race traffic, but was still at speed right
up until I turned the corner into the speedway. Made it to the turn
1 tram by 8:40. Got to the ticket booth, $30.00 for the Saturday
ticket. $10.00 more than I'd been told, but at least parking was
free, and I wouldn't have to pay for track food, since I brought my own.
Stopped by souveneir row to buy a cap, since I had forgotten mine and didn't
want a sunburned scalp. Gat a reasonable looking Bobby Labonte cap
(only a small sponsor logo, mostly Bobby's name). Got to the grandstand
at 9:00, and I only got a seat in the top row because I was there alone.
Sat next to some folks in from Milwaukee and Chicago. Real nice folks,
but the kid thought that Rusty was the AntiChrist after last week.
Real Gordon/Mayfield/Earnhardt/Labonte fans, nice folks. Didn't have
the cash for a scanner, but one of them kept us updated.
Winston Cup practice... Joe Nemecheck lost the back end, but didn't
damage the car
(huge clouds of tire smoke) Dick Trickle lost an engine, dropping
quite a bit of fluid on the track in turns 1 and 2.
Weather is still cloudy.
Cup qualifying went off without much of interest, if you care about
qualifying you
already know who made the field, or can get it from NASCAR.
ARCA Race:
I had my favorites. #46, Frank Kimmel, #3 Kirk Shelmerdine, and
the local boy, #83
Jeff Finley (Diamondale, MI). It doesn't hurt to later find out
that they were 2nd, 5th,
and 16th in points going in to the event. Also a driver I've
heard a lot of good about,
Andy Hillenberg #80, is starting in 41st on a champions provisional,
as he unloaded
late and didn't get to practice much.
Sometime about lap 9 or 10, a couple of cars got together in turn 3/4,
it's Mike Oscar
and Cavin Councillor. And already one car (#84) is a worse backmarker
than DW at
his worst, down about 1/2 a lap, seemed to be running on 7 cylinders.
Restart lap 16, Shelmerdine gets a great restart and moves up to about
5th position.
Finley is still in the top 12 (heavy racing going on in spots 10-15,
2 to 3 wide racing
through the field) Lap 34, Finley is up to 8th, Shelmerdine is 5th,
and Kimmel is up to
2nd.
Lap 38, the sun peeks out in Turn 1.
Lap 40, Kimmel 3rd, Shelmerdine 4th, Finley 7th.
First real pit stops start on lap 41. Start in earnest on 47,
when Kimmel and finley stop, a couple of cars run out of fuel but coast
around, and Shelmerdine stays out...Amusing note for computer folks:
The AOL car couldn't get restarted after it's pit stop...they pushed it
all the way from pit stall 24 to pit stall 13 before it started.
Lap 50, it starts to rain. Shelmerdine hasn't pitted yet.
Yellow flies on lap 53.
Shelmerdine won the gamble, didn't run out of fuel... In fact,
he's the only car on the
lead lap. Four cars on the tail end of the lead lap for the Restart...
Shelmerdine again gets a good jump, passes 2 of the 4 cars... But wait!
crash in turn 2 Yellow is back out.
The pace car picks up the whole field, not the leader. The scanner
goes wild.....
eventually they sort it out, letting the 2 cars on the tail end of
the lead lap and the 2 cars more than a lap down but in front of shelmerdine
to loop around and rejoin the
pack. 3 cars on the lead lap: Shelmerdine, Baird, Hillenberg,
Ciochetti(-1), Kimmel (-1),
Lap 69, 1 to go...
On the restart, Mike Ciochetti #17 makes up his lap, as does Kimmel
Lap 82 the sun comes out.
#83 passes the leader, he's in sixth.
Lap 87 Finley comes up behind #17, gets pinched by traffic.
Lap 89 caution... #83 hasn't passed #17 and kept it yet.
Scanner reports that #3 shelmerdine has dropped a cylinder at lap 92
Restart waved off at 93.
Restart at 94.
Shelmerdine got loose and bumped Bill Baird as Baird was passing to
take 2nd.
Restart at 98. Hillenberg, Kimmel, Finley, Ciochetti, Shelmerdine
Final lap Kimmel pulls down and tries to take Hillenberg
Hillenberg fights back on the outside.
Kimmel gets him coming through 4.
Finishing order: Kimmel, Hillenberg, Finley, Ciochetti, and in
7th(?) Shelmerdine.
Back to hanging out in the stands. The most interesting T-shirt
of the day is a guy who
took a "Rusty Sucks" bumper sticker and stuck it to a khaki colored
Tshirt. He was a
Dale Earnhardt fan.
Happy Hour...
Earnhardt gets crashed out by Wallace... I didn't see it so I
don't know how it
happened. Mostly bored by the rest of it.
IROC Race:
Jimmy Vassar wore a Red Wings jersey up to the driver intro holding
area and got
interviewed for having done so.
IROC starts inverted by point standings.
Kendall looked to be running away with the race. Only real excitement
in the first 20
laps was Jeff Burton getting loose. Nearly lost it. Clean racing,
really easy to go
backwards if you get out of line. Vassar and Unser, Jr lost the draft,
10 cars still dicing for it. Gordon spent a lot of time in 2nd behind Kendall,
but even after a lot of peeks, hasn't made a real move. Lap 33, Gordon
tries to pass Kendall, drops back to 6th
Lap 36, Kendall, Burton, Martin, Gordon, Stewart, Luyendyk, Earnhardt
Lap 4? Kendall, Burton, Martin, Gordon, Earnhardt, Stewart, Labonte
Lap 45, Burton and Martin pass Kendall. Gordon tries to pass,
Earnhardt makes it
three wide
Lap 48 Burton Martin Earnhardt Kendall Stewart Gordon Labonte Kendall
tries to pass Earnhardt
White Flag Burton, Martin, Stewart challenging for 2nd, then 1st
Checkers: Burton Martin Stewart Earnhardt Kendall Labonte Gordon
Luyendyk
Winner's circle quote from Jeff Burton: "I'm glad everyone stuck around, that was a hellof a race"
And an easy drive back home, in time to watch the Red Wings go up 3-0
for the
Stanley Cup Finals...
Eric
Eric O. Troldahl, [email protected]
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